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Milton used blank verse for his Biblical epic Paradise Lost. Before him, blank verse was used by Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, William Shakespeare, and other dramatists. Miltonian verses were the first use of this literary device in poetry. Along with that, Milton also employed alliteration to offer double discourse within the same verse. One such example is from the beginning lines of the 1st book of Paradise Lost, "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree..." While these lines offer an aesthetic example of alliteration using the ‘F word, it also offers a second message which can be read as ‘First Fruits are Forbidden.”
Paradise Lost Book 2 Summary
Book 2 begins with the summit of all fallen angels in the recently made Pandemonium, the temple of Satan. Satan addresses his supporters and says that though they have lost the war against Almighty they are yet alive and they can rise again, gather their strength and defeat Heaven. He then invites his close associates to offer their insights. In Book 1, Milton introduced Beelzebub and Mammon who raised the Pandemonium. In Book 2, Milton offers centerstage to two more cohorts of Satan. These two daemons are Malloch, the pro-war fallen angel, and Belial, the coward who disguises his cowardice shrewdly in the garbs of reason.
As Satan ends his speech, Malloch stands up and says that nothing, even their destruction could be worse than Hell, that they are forced to suffer now. He is a pro-war daemon, he was the fiercest fighter in the war in Heaven. He says that now they have found the resources of Hell abundant with strong metals and ores, they can make new and stronger weapons and can defeat the force of Almighty. Belial, the worthless rises up and contradicts Malloch. He says that God hasn’t punished them as fiercely as he could. He says that the worse was when they all were chained to the fiery lake to suffer an unending fire. Now they are free by God’s grace and if they do nothing wrong to invoke God’s wrath, he may forgive them and allow them to re-enter Heaven as well. But peace and good are not what Belial desires. He rather wishes daemons to remain inactive and wait for the chance. He tries to persuade the others to be more discreet so that their unacceptable behavior is less conspicuous. He says that now we know the true powers of Almighty, he is everywhere and hence, can see and listen to whatever we do or say. Thus, hoping to defeat Almighty is impractical. He says that they should now remain inactive so that God may either relent on their punishment or with time, they will be accustomed to the hard life of hell. Milton expresses Belial’s speech as "words cloth'd in reason's garb."
Mammon, the Materialist stands up again and addresses the summit. He contradicts Belial and refuses to ever bow down to God again. Though he doesn’t support another war against Heaven too. He says that the fallen angels have got resources in Hell and with their endeavor they can make Hell a much better place. He says that daemons should now work to make their own kingdom in Hell. All the other daemons happily endorse his idea and greet him with applause.
Beelzebub is the mouthpiece of Satan who rises again and says that Mammon’s idea is also not workable. Beelzebub says that Almighty is present everywhere and no matter how much they despise him, he is ruling over them in Hell too. Since daemons cannot accept the rule of God, they are forced to remain in a passive war against Almighty till eternity. Beelzebub says, "War hath determined us,” to continue our struggle against the good of God is our fate.
Beelzebub then talks about the new creature that God has created. Beelzebub says that now when we have been thrown out of Heaven, this new race of Man is more dear and important for God. He says that Man is a weaker race, he is not as strong as angels, archangels, and cherubs. Yet, Man is the favorite of God. Since the goal of daemons is to create hurdles and worries for God, if the fallen angels succeed in seducing Man to follow their evil and corrupt path, it will anger God and it will be a victory for daemons.
This idea of Beelzebub allows the fallen angels to have a way to work for their improvements in Hell while they can also strive to take revenge against Heaven by seducing Man to their side. All the other fallen angels unanimously approve this decision and thus, with the help of Beelzebub, Satan succeeds in gathering all the forces of fallen angels to his own cause.
Satan again takes the lead and asks for a volunteer who may venture out of hell to find more about this new creature, Man. Nobody agrees to volunteer. Satan suggests his own name and everyone agrees.
As the summit ends, all the daemons break into smaller groups to create new structures in Hell. Meanwhile, Satan decides to find a way out of Hell so that he may go find the new world and observe Man. He sees that there are nine closed gates (three each of brass, iron, and adamantine) restricting him from leaving Hell. He observes that there are two strange guards and a pack of wolf-like dogs guarding those nine gates. One of them is a strange creature whose upper body is like that of a beautiful busty female while her lower part is like that of a stealthy serpent. The other guard appears like a phantom shadow. Satan cries against the dark shadow and orders him to open the gate otherwise he will kill him. As Satan readies to attack the dark shadow, the woman-beast cries out and stops them from attacking each other. She reveals that she is Sin, the daughter of Satan. She took birth out of Lucifer’s mind when he felt envy of the Son of God for the first time. The sin appeared as a strange creature with a very attractive upper body but a lower body of a serpent. Lucifer couldn’t control his lust and Sin accepted her father as her lover and their illicit relationship gave birth to Death, a phantom-like Dark Shadow. She further says that when their son saw her alone, he raped her. She then gave birth to these hounds who continue to torment her all the time.
Satan is now less violent and more friendly towards these two. He tells them that he is going to search Earth, the new world where a new creature named Man dwells. Satan says that if he finds Earth, the three, Satan, Sin, and Death can rule over this new world and Death will then have plenty to satiate his hunger. Sin holds the key to open the gates but she knows that once the gates are opened up, they cannot be closed again. She decides to let Satan come out and venture his search.
As Satan comes out, he faces a vast dark space with nowhere to go. Nonetheless, he decides to fly above, thinking, Man, being the favorite of God must dwell above Hell, near to God. As he flies away, he fails to continue upward motion and is forced downward until a fiery cloud catches him and carries him up. Again, Almighty intervened and let Satan pursue his search. As Satan moves up, he encounters a great tumult of noise. Satan decides to follow it. As he reaches near, he sees Chaos the ruler of the abyss, and his consort the dark Night. The keeps of Chaos are Rumor, Tumult, Chance, and Confusion. Satan asks him the way to the new world. He tells Chaos that if he succeeds in gaining control over Earth, he will allow chaos to spread more disorder. Chaos shows him the way to Earth. He says that Earth is chained to Heaven with a heavy golden chain. Sin and Death continue to follow Satan as he flies up towards earth, making a dark bridge to reach the earth so that evil daemons may reach the earth to tempt Man and bring him to Hell.
Analysis of Book 2
The debate in Pandemonium clarifies some deep philosophical points. Mammon clarifies that while there can not be an open war between Good and Evil as Good, will always remain more powerful than Evil, yet there is an eternal animosity that can never end. Evil will never end as fallen angels will never bow to god in any case and god will never accept the daemons back in heaven. Thus, while Evil cannot be vanquished, it will always remain weak against Good. Beelzebub shows the path and declares that the soul of Man will be the eternal battleground of good and evil as Satan and his forces will continue to tempt man to fall prey to their course.
Hell is depicted as an exact opposite mirror image of Heaven. The trinity of Heaven is God, Holy Spirit, and Son of God, the triforce of Hell are Satan, Sin, and Death, son of Satan. Milton personified Sin and Death to offer an image of an unholy trinity. This shows the influence of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene on Paradise Lost.
Book 2 further elaborates the Universal hierarchical structure with Heaven above all. Below it lies the new world Earth attached to heaven with a golden chain. Man is God’s favorite and is in direct influence of God. Below the earth is the rule of Chaos, Night, Rumor, Chance, Tumult, and Confusion. While Chaos is neutral in the struggle of Satan against God, he loves disorder while God represents order. Below the rule of Chaos lies Hell, the new kingdom of Satan, Sin, and Death, farthest from the grace of God.
We will continue to discuss other books of Paradise Lost. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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